Climate Action

List of 11 frequently asked questions.

• Campus Carbon Reduction Plan

  To develop a carbon reduction plan for the campus, in early 2022 Poly partnered with Verdical Group, a sustainability consulting firm with expertise in decarbonizing the built environment. In collaboration with Poly’s Facilities’ team, Verdical Group analyzed the school’s energy systems and identified baseline energy usage and resulting carbon emissions. The final report includes a plan that identifies specific carbon reduction projects to guide strategy and planning choices to help Poly progress toward carbon neutrality.
  
  Read about how student climate activism spurred Poly to assess its carbon impacts.

• Rooftop Solar Systems

  Implementing rooftop solar systems throughout the campus is a key component of Poly’s plan to reduce carbon. The school will commence rooftop solar installation in 2024 and ultimately intends to meet most of the school’s electricity needs with solar energy.

• Energy Efficiency

  Improving energy efficiency is a primary focus for Poly’s Facilities Department. A full transition to LED lighting is underway throughout the campus in a phased effort. Poly’s garage and most outdoor lighting already have LED technology, increasing energy efficiency and reducing maintenance. Lighting in theaters, classrooms, and offices is being replaced with LED in a phased approach. Submeters will also be installed in strategic locations throughout campus buildings to monitor progress in energy efficiency.

• Electrification

  Most of Poly’s facilities are heated with natural gas. A focus on electrification means shifting away from burning fossil-fuels for heating and cooling to all-electric options such as heat pumps. This will further reduce Poly’s carbon footprint, especially as the electrical grid becomes cleaner. The school is replacing core classroom split gas/electric HVAC units with more efficient electric heat pumps in a phased approach.

• Recycling Food Waste Into Compost

  With students leading the way, Poly diverts 95% of all campus-generated organic waste, composting food scraps and landscaping trimmings and reducing methane gas. At lunch waste sorting stations across the K-12 campus, students, faculty and staff scrape food scraps from lunch into buckets for composting. The bucket system was designed by Poly’s Operations’ team in collaboration with students. With training and support from 02Compost, students also compost several tons of food and landscaping waste annually on-site in 02Compost designed aerated static pile composting bins. The finished compost is added as a natural fertilizer to the Lower and Middle School vegetable garden raised beds, closing the loop on campus organic waste.

• Reducing Single-use Plastics

  Poly launched a K-12 lunch reusables program in 2022, providing reusable plates and metal utensils for all who order lunch from the school’s cafeteria. The purpose of the initiative was to eliminate 80,000 + single-use plastic utensils from the waste stream annually. The program has vastly reduced waste campus-wide. In 2024, Poly eliminated single-use plastic water bottles from its cafeteria, inspired by 8th grade student research and advocacy.

• Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations

  Poly encourages EV use with 16 EV charging stations available to the community located in the school’s garage. Poly partnered with Chevrolet to offer free employee trials of the all-electric Chevy Bolt.

• School Bus Program

  Since Poly's Bus Program's inception in 2014, it has served more than 225 students. Within the past four years, the program has saved 15,140 car trips to/from campus, significantly reducing CO2 emissions. Poly continues to evaluate its bus routes to be able to serve more families.

• Stormwater Retention

  As Pasadena benefits from as much as 40% of its water supply from well water, recharging the aquifer remains a longstanding sustainable process. New discussions with Pasadena Water and Power seek to develop strategies and resources on campus to incorporate ways to increase water infiltration during rainstorms. Methods such as water garden designs, infiltration basins, and regular storm drain maintenance may be considered to maximize water infiltration to groundwater supply while continuing to manage flooding.

• LEED Certification

  A major campus construction and renovation project received LEED Gold certification in 2012.

• Sustainability Staffing

  Recognizing the climate emergency and the importance of both supporting students’ interest in climate action and the urgency of reducing Poly’s campus carbon emissions, the school increased environmental sustainability staffing in 2021. Two employees now share responsibilities to decarbonize campus facilities, implement environmental sustainability initiatives and advise individual students and student clubs that are focused on making progress on climate action at Poly and at the municipal level.